How Effective is Email Advertising

How many emails did you get today? I bet at least one of them is an advertisement from a company marketing a product. After being sent countless emails, chances are, their names and products have already subconsciously registered in your mind, even if you did not read them with a conscious effort.

Urvashi Pokharna

In the world of smartphones, especially the huge market for business phones, people are instantly notified about new emails. In fact, even if you did not, chances are you check your email account at least once a day, if you often resort to online communication in order to keep in contact with your peers. Hence, it is very unlikely that you have not been exposed to even one email, advertising a product. You may find it annoying, but the truth is, email marketing or advertising is one of the quickest ways of online advertising to reach a large market. One click is all it takes to broadcast an email to over thousands of prospective customers.

But, so many recipients of such emails complain about their spamming and invasive nature. I would say that a company loses the effectiveness of its advertising campaign the exact time it tries to reach a non-specific market, in a bid to expand its customer base. That is when the recipients of such emails start marking them as spam. Also, with such a wide variety of demographics, it may be hard to personalize your emails and suit them according to the audience's temperament. But, it is not an impossible task. If smartly executed, an email marketing or advertising campaign can prove to be very effective and achieve the desired results.

Effectiveness of Email Advertising

Today, there are several companies around the globe that are employing email marketing as a means to reach a large consumer market. According to the Forrester Research Interactive Advertising Forecast, in 2010, $1,355 million were spent on email marketing in United States alone. In 2011, the same figure stood at $1,504 million and is expected to increase to $1,676 million in 2012. These statistics definitely answer the above question. Companies now understand the potential benefits of such advertising and are willing to spend large sums for it. It is not a bad investment and, in fact, has an impressive effect on the revenues.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, in the year 2009, $1 spent on email marketing generated a revenue of $43.62. Did you know? This type of marketing is expected to expand by 50%, with each succeeding year, for the next four years. Using some simple and effective tips, you can ensure than you fully utilize this affordable advertising option, without annoying your prospective customers. Provide value to your customers while advertising your product via emails. You can start by purchasing the database of your prospective clients from online advertising companies for customer identification.

Remember, in email marketing or advertising, more is not always better! It is a consistent effort and does not entail spamming your prospective client's inbox repeatedly, with bulk messages. While constructing an email for advertising purposes, make sure that the information you provide catches the recipient's eye. Make it as specific to your target group as you can. Nobody has the time to read a long email, advertising a product they have not yet planned to buy.

So, keep it short and simple to generate interest. The subject line is one of the most crucial points of advertising a product, because that is where a prospective buyer decides to open it or mark it as spam even without reading its contents. To avoid that, you only need some smart advertising tips. A well-structured advertising email has the power to convert your prospective customer in to an actual customer that makes a purchase, hot on the heels of PPC advertising.

Although today, there are several means of online advertising media like social networking portals and blogging, advertising through email has still retained the faith of a large chunk of companies that still rely on it to reach potential customers and get noticed. In fact, such type of marketing gives a sense of guarantee to reach customers even though the mail may or may not be spammed.

If you really want your campaign to be successful, focus on formulating and executing a powerful strategy instead of chasing behind the number of recipients of your emails. Irrespective of the effects of recession on the economy, companies did not cut back on their budgets for email advertising. This fact, itself, is an indicator of how effective it is. Need I say more?